Parker pitches well again in A’s win, Norris, Rosales homer

The A’s are on a roll, and their starting pitchers are leading the way: Tonight it was Jarrod Parker with seven solid innings in Oakland’s 6-3 victory over the Giants, Parker’s third consecutive outing in which he’s made it through seven.

“He’s a horse for us and he has the capability to do that every time out,” A’s catcher Derek Norris said of Parker.

Over the past 11 games, Oakland’s starters are 7-1 with a 2.34 ERA, and the A’s are 10-1 in that span. They’re seven games over .500 for the first time since April 19, and the A’s are 2 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the AL West.

“We’re doing a lot of things right, keeping it simple, one at-bat, one pitch,” Norris said. “One game in, one game out, the next day is a new day. Everyone is doing their part, everyone knows their role, no one is trying to do more than they’re capable of doing.”

Last night, the power came from Josh Donaldson; all he did tonight was walk, single and double to lift his average to .377 over the past 34 games. The home runs tonight came from Norris, a two-run shot off Mike Kickham (making his big-league debut) in the second inning, and Adam Rosales, who smacked a solo homer off Jose Mijares in the eight, ending an 0-for-24 streak for Rosales.

“Same as last night,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Starting pitching was terrific, the bullpen came in and did the job and we got some key hits.”

Yoenis Cespedes extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a double in the third, and he scored that inning on a bases loaded single by Nate Freiman. Oakland’s other run that inning came when Kickham walked Donaldson intentionally to load the bases – then walked Jed Lowrie to send in Chris Young.

“Big walks are not as sexy, but the more you put pressure on pitchers and there’s nowhere to go, a big walk in an inning might be as good as a hit,” Melvin said.

Young made a three-base error in the eighth inning on a drive by Marco Scutaro, but reliever Ryan Cook let it bother him not, getting Pablo Sandoval to ground out to end the inning.

Grant Balfour allowed a solo homer by Hunter Pence in the ninth. Pence also drove in the Giants’ first run in the first inning with a two-out, two-strike single off Parker. Parker, who threw 26 pitches that innings, said he tried to be more effective the rest of the way to make up for that, with the goal of going seven. And in general, Parker said, what he’s trying to do is work quickly and get back to the dugout, get the A’s offense back up, “keep them at the plate,” he said.

Parker was 0-4 with an 8.10 ERA in his first five starts and he is 3-2 with a 3.76 ERA since. He said he’s not going to get overly excited about it, but he’s happy the mechanical tweaks he made and the other things he’d worked on have paid off so far – and he’ll keep on working at it.

“When you go through some bad spell, you’ve got to put some demons away and take care of it, and he has,” Melvin said.

Josh Reddick went 1 for 3 with a walk at Sacramento tonight, and the River Cats reported on Twitter that he stayed and signed autographs until the last fan left the stadium.